1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments are related to electronic signal processing, including, for example, non-coherent detection of a signal and the accurate performance assessment of the same.
2. Description of the Related Technology
Receivers for wireless communications and other signals can operate as coherent design, in which the frequency and phase of the carrier have been recovered, or as noncoherent, in which phase is not explicitly estimated. Non-coherent receivers generally have superior performance where factors such as fast frequency selection, large Doppler spread, strong phase noise, and/or co-channel interference are present. Moreover non-coherent receivers have minimal time delay for resynchronization. Examples of demodulation schemes that can be implemented using noncoherent demodulation include differential phase shift keying (DPSK), frequency shift keying (FSK), continuation phase modulation (CPM), quadrature phase-shift keying, and hybrids of these and other modulations.
Non-coherent receivers may use knowledge of aspects of the received signal in the form of a probability density function in order to tune parameters for optimal performance under diverse channel, propagation or noise conditions. For example, a signal may be represented as the transmitted signal plus additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN). A probability density function indicative of a signal so modeled can be used to make detection decisions in a receiver or to assess the performance of such a receiver. Such probability density functions can further model other aspects of the modulation scheme and/or characteristics associated with a particular channel or environment. These include average bit error rate or total attainable bits per second that the modulation and channel can support.
However, in some cases, calculation of the particular probability density function can be computationally complex and/or inaccurate as implemented in a digital computing system. Accordingly, a need exists for improved methods of calculating probability density functions for use in, for example but not limited to, communication systems.